Co-production with Front Range, Colorado, water managers to evaluate Multiobjective Evolutionary 
Algorithms (MOEAs) and increase their potential to impact long term planning

Many promising tools and methods developed in water resources systems analysis research have seen 
little uptake outside of academia. This may be due to a lack of effective communication about the 
research to water managers, or it may be because the tools are not ultimately useful or usable in 
practice. Current predominant research frameworks do not provide insight into these issues or 
facilitate the incorporation of industry needs into research agendas. 

We developed a structured process to address this disconnect called the Participatory Framework for 
Assessment and Improvement of Tools (ParFAIT). We applied ParFAIT specifically to Multiobjective 
Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA)-assisted optimization. MOEAs are bottom-up decision support tools that 
researchers have proven can increase learning and improve outcomes in academic water resources planning 
studies, but which have seen very limited uptake in real-world water management. 

This presentation describes our application of ParFAIT during which we worked with Front Range, 
Colorado, water utilities to co-produce an MOEA testbed, evaluated the tool’s potential to enhance 
utilities’ long term planning processes, and applied statistical methods to advance the usefulness of 
MOEA results.